Founder Profile

Pew is an independent nonprofit organization – the sole beneficiary of seven individual trusts established between 1948 and 1979 by four generous and committed siblings. Learn more about one of our founders: Mary Ethel Pew.

Project

Election Initiatives

Pew supports innovative research and partnerships to achieve the highest standards of accuracy, cost-effectiveness, convenience, and security in America’s system of election administration.

Voting is our most fundamental responsibility as citizens—without it, our American democracy wouldn’t exist. Pew’s election work supports innovative research and partnerships to achieve the highest standards of accuracy, cost-effectiveness, convenience, and security in America’s system of election administration. Because effective elections systems are fundamental to our nation’s democracy, we examine pressing election problems, share successful practices, and undertake projects to help states implement efficient and cost-effective solutions.

The Voting Information Project (VIP) works with states to ensure that Americans can easily find official voting information where they look for it most: online. VIP, a partnership of The Pew Charitable Trusts, Google, and states, aims to ensure that voters have the answers they need to basic questions such as, "Where is my polling place?" "What's on my ballot?" and "How do I navigate the voting process?" VIP uses an open format to make election data available and accessible, using cutting-edge technology to make sure that all eligible voters have the information they need to cast their ballots. This highly technical initiative involves the standardization, validation, and publication of state election data. Validation of state data, in particular, is an extremely complex process, and before VIP, no technical solution existed to rigorously test for every potential error from structural to geographical accuracy. To address this issue, VIP developed a first-of-its-kind set of criteria and the software solution to support it.

In 2013, The Pew Charitable Trusts unveiled the Elections Performance Index (EPI), which provided the first comprehensive assessment of election administration in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The interactive tool introduced the index&rsquo;s performance indicators, summarized 2008 and 2010 data, and ranked the states according to their overall EPI averages, or scores, which give users a way to evaluate states&rsquo; election performance side by side and over time.

Online voter registration allows eligible citizens to easily and securely register to vote or update their information via secure government websites. The map below shows jurisdictions that offer online voter registration. Voters should click on the state links below the map to register to vote or update their information.

Low registration rates and highly mobile populations can make it difficult for elections officials to maintain the integrity of voter lists. Approximately 1 in 8 registration records nationwide is inaccurate or out of date. However, states that participate in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC)&mdash;a partnership that uses a sophisticated and secure data-matching tool to provide states with accurate information about voters who have moved or died&mdash;have increased the accuracy of their voter rolls, improved election performance, and reduced costs. ERIC allows states to compare official government data, U.S. Postal Service addresses, and Social Security death records. Twenty states and the District of Columbia participate in ERIC, and more are expected to join in the coming years.